Search This Blog

Greg Ness: Key to Virtualization kingdom is security!

Just like Applications , as I mentioned in the previous post, security will also change dramatically.

Changes can be Painful for many Security Solutions

In production environments effortless movement and changes of VM states (snapshot, revert, online, offline, VMotion, etc) can generate extreme operational challenges for critical security activities like vulnerability scanning, patching and security. Vulnerability scans, a critical tool for tracking software vulnerabilities, can become obsolete in seconds. Bottom line: The constant change enabled by virtualization can place dynamic demands on the most commonly deployed static security solutions, in even small virtualized production infrastructures.

All the tricks, flips and tools that make software more nimble and powerful will not matter unless the production infrastructure can be effectively secured from attack. Yet many of the leading network security vendors have been caught flat-footed by virtualization. Some are even trying to cram ASIC-driven IPS solutions onto commodity processors, taking up sizable chunks of server/blade processing power and introducing unacceptable levels of latency, in a nonsensical effort to match suspicious virtual server traffic with a growing library of signatures. That game promises to get even more complicated and resource-consuming as hackers shift to mutating attacks.

Taking the challenges a step further into the virtualized data center made up of blade server fabrics: just how many enterprises will be returning to the ASIC security world with bigger boxes, bigger signature libraries and the promise of constant tuning and traffic headaches while the rest of their infrastructure becomes more powerful, more flexible and more efficient?

How many ASIC-driven security players (and their hardware-centric channel partners) are likewise talking a hard look at the pure software model of virtualization (and much lower margins) and seriously contemplating “serving up their children and their channel allies” to deliver a core technology that in its current state is likely unfit for commoditized processing? That’s an Innovators Dilemma that might even make Clay Christensen cringe.

Popular posts from this blog

YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING. WITHIN 2 SECONDS YOU WILL BE REDIRECTED TO THE NEW HOME OF AVASTU BLOG. PLEASE DO UPDATE AVASTU BLOG'S URL to : http://www.ideationcloud.com on your website.

I will send out emails personally to those who are using my link(s) on their sites.

Thanks much for your co-operation and hope you enjoy the new site and its cool new features :-)

Not like the site is unlive or something..on the contrary, its beginning to get a lot of attention already. Well most of the work is done, you don't have to worry about anything though:

What won't change

Links/Referrals: I will be redirecting the links (all links which you may have cross-posted) to IdeationCloud.com - so you don't have to do anything in all your posts and links. Although, I would urge however that you do change the permalinks, especially on your blogs etc yourselfThis blog is not going away anywhere but within a few months, I will consider discontinuing its usage. I won't obviously do …

My upcoming article, part - 3 data center predictions for 2009, has a slideshot talking about the transition from the current age to the cloud computing age to eventually the ideation age- the age where you will have clouds that will emote but they will have no internal employees.

Biggest management disasters occur because internal folks are making a mess of the playground.

Om's blog is carrying an article about Cloud security and it is rather direct but also makes a lot of sense:

I don’t believe that clouds themselves will cause the security breaches and data theft they anticipate; in many ways, clouds will result in better security. Here’s why: Fewer humans –Most computer breaches are the result of human error; only 20-40 percent stem from technical malfunctions. Cloud operators that want to be profitable take humans out of the loop whenever possible.Better tools – Clouds can afford high-end data protection and security monitoring tools, as well as the experts to run them. I trust…

Greg Ness: Key to Virtualization kingdom is security!

Just like Applications , as I mentioned in the previous post, security will also change dramatically.

Changes can be Painful for many Security Solutions

In production environments effortless movement and changes of VM states (snapshot, revert, online, offline, VMotion, etc) can generate extreme operational challenges for critical security activities like vulnerability scanning, patching and security. Vulnerability scans, a critical tool for tracking software vulnerabilities, can become obsolete in seconds. Bottom line: The constant change enabled by virtualization can place dynamic demands on the most commonly deployed static security solutions, in even small virtualized production infrastructures.

All the tricks, flips and tools that make software more nimble and powerful will not matter unless the production infrastructure can be effectively secured from attack. Yet many of the leading network security vendors have been caught flat-footed by virtualization. Some are even trying to cram ASIC-driven IPS solutions onto commodity processors, taking up sizable chunks of server/blade processing power and introducing unacceptable levels of latency, in a nonsensical effort to match suspicious virtual server traffic with a growing library of signatures. That game promises to get even more complicated and resource-consuming as hackers shift to mutating attacks.

Taking the challenges a step further into the virtualized data center made up of blade server fabrics: just how many enterprises will be returning to the ASIC security world with bigger boxes, bigger signature libraries and the promise of constant tuning and traffic headaches while the rest of their infrastructure becomes more powerful, more flexible and more efficient?

How many ASIC-driven security players (and their hardware-centric channel partners) are likewise talking a hard look at the pure software model of virtualization (and much lower margins) and seriously contemplating “serving up their children and their channel allies” to deliver a core technology that in its current state is likely unfit for commoditized processing? That’s an Innovators Dilemma that might even make Clay Christensen cringe.